A fairly familiar senior Reggae Girlz squad will be on show in the upcoming Concacaf Women’s Championship in the United States as they hunt qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next year.

The 20-player squad assembled by Head Coach Hue Menzies and his assistants Lorne Donaldson and Andrew Price includes 18 players who were a part of the team that topped the Concacaf Caribbean Women’s Championship in Kingston earlier this month.

However, there are two new additions in experienced goalkeeper Nicole McClure and the lone local-based player Shanise Foster of Arnett Gardens.

McClure, 29, who now plies her trade for Sundsvalls DFF in Sweden, is set to make a return to the set-up after being away for some time, while Foster, 25, is being rewarded for her high level of consistency in the local women’s league.

The Reggae Girlz will contest Group B alongside Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba in the October 4-17 tournament at H-E-B Park in Edinburg, Texas.

Defending champions United States, Mexico, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago will contest Group A. Following the group stage, all matches will be played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Assistant Coach Price explained that the make-up of the squad is a part of their mandate to put the best players on show for Jamaica, while continuing to build the depth of the squad to ensure qualification.

“I believe that the players we have selected represent a very well-balanced squad. It’s a mix of youth and experience; we have players that play in the college system and we have professional players.

“This is possibly the strongest squad that we could assemble at this point in time and probably the strongest squad we have assembled in a long while, and I believe the players have the desire and hunger to go out there and play and I believe another key component to the squad is that there is a lot of depth,” Price told the Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica’s delegation is scheduled to arrive in Texas on Sunday evening, some five days ahead of their opening clash against Canada next Friday.

This, Price said, is to facilitate a camp to make up for the fact that they were unable to secure a pre-tournament camp and practice games due to the scheduling of most of the players.

“One of the good things is that a lot of the girls are now getting a lot of playing time because they are either playing with their respective clubs or universities, so that gives us some reassurance that they will come into the camp ready to go. So all we have to do is focus on tactical work and prepare for the opponents that we have in front of us,” the tactician noted.

The top-three teams in the tournament will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, with the fourth-place team having an opportunity to secure qualification through a play-off with Argentina of CONMEBOL.

“Our chances are as good as any… all eight teams, I am sure, want to qualify for France and we want to qualify also. There are four opportunities to get there and so we want to take it step by step and game by game.

“Our first objective is to get to the semi-finals and from there we will see what happens for the remainder of the tournament, but our chances are as good as any of the other teams and we are quietly optimistic,” Price ended.

The winners of the two semi-final encounters on October 14 will automatically qualify for the World Cup, as well as the winners of the third-place game scheduled for October 17. The final is scheduled to take place on October 17 to determine the confederation’s champions.

Squad: Allyson Swaby (Hottur), Ashleigh Shim (unattached), Chantelle Swaby (Rutgers University), Chinyelu Asher (Washington Spirit), Christina Chang (Miami Surge), Deneisha Blackwood (Florida Kraze Krush), Dominique Bond-Flasza (PSV Eindhoven, NED), Giselle Washington (Concord Fire), Jadyn Matthews (Cornell University), Jody Brown (Montverde Academy), Khadija Shaw (University Of Tennessee), Konya Plummer (Florida Kraze Krush), Lauren Silver (unattached), Marlo Sweatman (unattached), Nicole McClure (Sundsvalls DFF, SWE), Sashana Campbell (Maccabi Krishronot Hadera, ISR), Shanise Foster (Arnett Gardens FC), Sydney Schneider (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Toriana Patterson (Tti Bluebonnets, USA), Trudi Carter (AS Roma).